At some point in our most desperate prayers we have to rally. Because when you get to the bottom of your barrel, when you’re scraping out the dregs, when you have less than nothing, you can see him. It’s easier to surrender all when we have nothing. And absolute surrender is how we see him. […]

When I picture our tiny slice of universe surrounded by what seems like infinite space, light years, eons, when I think about us, tiny specks on this relatively small piece of celestial real estate, I have to wonder, does God really know me? When I hear about people who’ve humbled themselves and accepted whatever suffering […]

I forget God. I forget who he is. Though I have only to look up at the infinite sky to recognize my insignificance compared to his immensity, I still lose sight of his majesty. I wander off into my own definition — the smallness of who I think he is, rather than the expansiveness of […]

Musing on Genesis 4 Other People Cain is worried about people taking revenge for the murder of his brother, Abel. Is he talking about his father and mother? A sister? Brothers yet to be born? Does Cain take one of his sisters with him as his wife or are there people we don’t know about […]

The killing had been quick and easy. Too easy. Abel had suspected nothing and offered no resistance. In a moment the light had gone out of his brother’s eyes, “like one of his sacrificial lambs,” Cain thought, but immediately he dismissed it from his mind. He had just finished washing his hands. The dirt from […]

Random Life

I got a haircut last week. Not the salon kind. The emergency kind, the kind that your husband gives you because the handheld massager you tried to use to get the knots out of your neck is now firmly knotted to your head. It’s one of those mornings. I haven’t slept well, and I wake […]

One of the reasons marriages fall apart after a number of years is that they just can’t survive the weight of garbage that has built up over time. You want to have a good marriage, so you resolve your conflicts and move on. But it’s easy to overlook the bits of resentment still snagged on […]

Maybe I was born an overachiever, but I’ve only known striving for first place. I’ve never been content with “good enough.” I’m always working for the best — and then some. This attitude works well for school and a lot of other things. The problem is, it’s not always easy to turn it off, or […]

My latest creative endeavor is learning how to use a DSLR camera. I don’t remember what DSLR stands for. All I know is that it’s bigger than a point and click and has a lot more buttons. More importantly, all other things being equal, it somehow takes nicer pictures. Also we happen to have one […]

So I found myself in the dressing room at Victoria’s Secret trying on the Bombshell bikini top. Now, I don’t have a problem with a little enhancement. Sometimes a little smoothing, shaping, or boosting can make a big difference. I believe in making the most of what you have. But there’s a point at which enhancement turns into something else entirely […]

Reads

Musing on Genesis 2 I’m surprised to discover, after all the hoopla of the first five days of creation, that we’re still just looking at dirt. I always pictured God creating this lush green earth, teeming with creatures, and then plunking man down in the middle of it. But apparently, that’s not necessarily how it happened. […]

A disciple’s look at five loaves and two fish. Luke 9:10-17 Crowds. I see them in my dream. Bodies, faces, sweat and heat. And hands, so many hands, reaching and clutching. Jesus had sent us out with the power to preach and heal. What a privilege. What a responsibility. We’re home now, pressing through yet […]

Musing on Genesis 3 “Did God really say you can’t eat from any tree of the garden?” The serpent isn’t so much attempting to verify God’s exact words as he is injecting a note of incredulity, pointing out the absurdity of God’s edict. With one word, the serpent calls into question God’s judgment, his reasonableness. […]

Musing on Genesis 2 How could evil exist in Paradise? Apparently the issue was not the existence of evil, but familiarity — touching, seeing, experiencing it. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil gave man the opportunity to know good and evil. Prior to that, man knew only good, but in the absence […]